Ban on small scale mining: miners lose $268m; ban to be extended

Galamsey is threatening the country’s water bodies and environment, something that has led to a fight against the menace

About two hundred and sixty eight million dollars ($268m) of investments have been lost within months following government’s ban on small scale mining, Small Scale Miners Association claims.

The Association is therefore making clarion calls to government to lift the ban on their operations.

But it appears that request cannot be met anytime soon.

A Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu Bio has made it clear the ban will be lifted only when their operations have been sanitized.

The six months ban on all small scale mining activities elapsed on September 30, 2017.

It was the expectation of miners that the ban would be lifted to pave way for their operations to resume, however, the ministry has revealed the ban will be extended.

The deputy minister said the expected impact has not been achieved yet.

“It is not about the time, it is about achieving results, so if it’s still happening after the six months, why not an extension.”

But  General Secretary of the Association, Godwin Armah, says members have lost a lot of investment already and they are likely to lose more if the government implements its plan to extend the ban.

“We quantified it and we have about 268 million dollars for the miners, those who have license. This includes loans that are still accruing interest…we are also looking at a fixed cost that we are still paying and the cost of doing some maintenance.”

Small- scale mining of precious minerals made significant contributions to the country’s foreign exchange earnings. For instance, the total gold production by small scale miners rose from an estimated 2.2% in 1989 to 31% of the national production in 2016 whilst production of all diamonds is now coming from small scale mining.

But how will the ban on small scale mining activities affect the above figures.

“The gold is still there, so we don’t lose anything,” he answered.

Currently, about 700 mining concessions have been affected by the ban.

In April this year, government placed a six month ban on illegal mining and that of all small scale mining activities in the country, which elapsed in September ending.

By Kwabena Adu Gyamfi | TV3|3news.com

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